Chikara "Young Lion's Cup V, Night 1" 6/22/07
By: Magnus Donaldson

This is the first night of the 2007 Young Lions Cup tournament. Each year this tournament brings together the best young wrestlers from
Chikara and the indy scene, all under the age of 25 in order to determine who the best young prospect on the indy scene is.

Commentary is on rotation, including Ultramantis Black, Mitch Ryder, Bryce Remsburg, Mike Quackenbush, Leonard F Chikarason,

The twelve participants in tonight's half of the tournament are now introduced. They are: Rex Sterling, Amigo Suzuki, Ice Cream Jr,
Hex Gage, Chuck Taylor, Cabana Man Dan, Niles Young, Player Uno, Hydra, Moscow The Communist Bovine (who is extremely awesome),
El Hijo Del Ice Cream and Lince Dorado

Lince Dorado cuts a pretty brief promo saying he's here for one thing: to win the Young Lions Cup.

Match 1: El Hijo Del Ice Cream vs. Lince Dorado
This should be an entertaining bout between two talented high flyers. Mitch Ryder spent much of the match shooting on luchadors, saying
he doesn't appreciate them stinking up rings across the country, to build his feud with Lince Dorado. There was some great high flying action
in this one: Lince Dorado reminds me a lot of Rey Mysterio in his early years, only a little slower. The Ice Cream tried to ground Dorado with
mat wrestling and the occasional power move. It did not work as Lince Dorado advanced with the Chikara Special submission making
El Hijo Del Ice Cream tap- **3/4

The Order Of The Neo Solar Temple cut a promo, with Ultramantis Black eventually walking out because he could not bear to make fun of his
Communist animal brother (he's a bug after all). So Hydra just poses a bit.

Match 2: Hydra vs. Moscow The Communist Bovine
I expect there will be a lot of comedy here. This match was average, not quite as fun as I thought it would be, although there were a few good
moments (such as Hydra bringing in a fork to eat the cow). Moscow got the fall with a Side Russian Leg Sweep (because he's a Communist).
Too short to be anything memorable, but if it had been longer it probably would have dragged- *

Niles Young cuts a promo saying he last competed in the Young Lions Cup when he lost to Sabian at the second tournament. Since then a lot's
 changed, as he now has the services of a manager (who's name escapes me as I do not watch CZW, well, because it sucks).

Match 3: Niles Young w/CZW valet vs. Player Uno
I am not a Niles Young fan, and while I like Player Uno, he's not capable of carrying Niles to a decent bout, so this was another poor match.
There were one or two decent moments, but besides that there was not a lot to like here. One to skip. Player Uno put Niles out of the
 tournament with a Schoolboy rollup- 3/4*

Cabana Man Dan cuts a promo saying he's representing IWA Deep South and that he makes his opponents cry, which is what he will do to
 Chuck Taylor tonight (kind of ironic since he like to make little kids cry).

Match 4: Chuck Taylor vs. Cabana Man Dan
I haven't seen Cabana Man Dan before: he got a Caribbean surfer gimmick (I guess he's like the Carlito of the indy scene). Much of the early part
 of the match saw Cabana try to hit Taylor with a sandal he brought to ringside with him. After that Taylor took control and mixed some cheap
 moves with fast, high impact offense. Then Taylor made a mistake by putting Cabana's sandals in his ring gear to use later, allowing Cabana to steal
 one and start hitting him with it (causing Taylor to scream like a girl). Cabana finally does some actual wrestling, but can't get three, then Taylor gets
 three with the Omega Driver. This was a lot of fun and I'd like to have seen more: my favourite match of the first round- **3/4

Match 5: Hex Gage vs. Ice Cream Jr.
My first time seeing Hex Gage, he seems to be a very no nonsense wrestler with some charisma. This match was decent enough but not all that exciting,
 as Ice Cream Jr seemed slightly off his game and Hex Gage while a good old school wrestler did not have enough to keep the crowd going, not to
 mention he botched a few flippy moves. Still, I've seen a lot worse and I did enjoy this in portions, but it could have been a few minutes shorter.
 Ice Cream Jr picked up the win with the Jackhammer- **

Rex Sterling cuts a promo saying he is the best in this tournament, and won't go home a failure.

Match 6: Rex Sterling vs. Amigo Suzuki
I'll also admit that this is my first time seeing both of these men, although I have some FIP to watch with Sterling on it. I thought this was an enjoyable,
 technical style match, with no sloppiness or botches which is something I like to see. Suzuki was impressive, as was Sterling who I think is an
 underrated talent. Suzuki spent much of the match working over the leg, with my only real problem being that Sterling's selling was a little
 inconsistent. After weakening Sterling's leg further with an Anklelock, Suzuki avoided an Enziguri and hat the Tiger Suplex for three.- **3/4

Match 7: Rhett Titus vs. Worker Ant
Titus reminds me a lot of Edge in his appearance now. There wasn't too much to this match unfortunately, as both men are inexperienced , so there
 was a lot of sloppiness and botches, and the offense wasn't too crisp. Still, both men have personalities and kept me reasonably interested.
 So just an average match in the end. Rhett Titus reversed a pinning combination into one of his own for three- *1/2

Match 8: Chrisjen Hagne vs. Billy Roc
A good match, with a clash of styles as Billy Roc wrestled a fast, technical style while Hagne used more of a power based style, with the
 occasional high flying move. Hagne kept trying to match Roc on the mat, but could not do so without cheating as Roc had the advantage over
 him in terms of technical skill. Having not seen Hagne before I want to see more of him as he's a good wrestler. After some entertaining exchanges
 of near falls, Billy Roc scored the fall with the Standing Shiranui- **3/4

Mitch Ryder cuts a promo basically saying that he beat Shane Storm last month, and Shane Storm is not going to beat him tonight.

Match 9: 'Marvellous' Mitch Ryder vs. Shane Storm
Another decent match. Mitch Ryder very much wrestled an old school style, seeing as he is as old school a wrestler as you can get.
Shane Storm was in the underdog role again, trying to battle back with strikes and lucha moves. However, Storm was unable to get far against
 the Marvellous one as Ryder pinned him with the Piledriver- **

Match 10: Six Way Elimination Finals
Lince Dorado vs. Moscow the Communist Bovine vs. Player Uno vs. Chuck Taylor vs. Ice Cream Jr. vs. Amigo Suzuki
This was the best match on the show, as it was given plenty of time to develop and I found it very entertaining. We basically saw a mixture of
 high flying and mat wrestling here, with the occasional comedy moment from Moscow. Comedy moment of the match has to be Taylor using
 Suzuki's flag to make Moscow charge like a bull, then pulls it away to allow him to crush two opponents in the corner. So overall this was a
 great and entertaining bout that I highly enjoyed.

Elimination were as follows-

                                        ~ Moscow by everybody (they all rolled him up to get him out of the match)
                                        ~ Player Uno by Amigo Suzuki
                                        ~ Amigo Suzuki by Lince Dorado
                                        ~ Ice Cream Jr. by DQ (Chuck Taylor faked being hat with a Low Blow so Bryce Remsburg DQ'ed Ice Cream Jr.)
                                        ~ Lince Dorado by Chuck Taylor- ***1/4

There are also a few bonus Podcasts on here to watch, but I won't go into those.

Overall, this is not the best Chikara show you'll see. Only one match rates over ***, and there are a few poor matches on this card.
 However, there are also four matches I rated just under ***, so there are some good matches.
 It's supposed to be built towards Night 3, and it does that just fine. Mild recommendation.

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